Remote lighting systems are typically used to generate light and to communicatively "guide" the generated light to one or more locations which are remotely located from the light source. These systems are typically used in a wide variety of applications and devices, such as within vehicles, and include a light generating source, a "collector" which receives and/or collects the generated light, and one or more optical guides or fibers which communicatively guide or transmit the generated light to one or more locations remote from the source through the principal of "total internal reflection". The transmitted and/or guided light is emitted and/or projected onto a lens assembly which refracts the emitted light in a desired manner, thereby producing a desired intensity, pattern and/or lighting function (e.g., a "high beam" or "low beam" function).
For example and without limitation, in remote vehicular lighting systems, optical guides or fibers are adapted to selectively transmit light which is generated by a source within a vehicle to a vehicle's headlamps or "headlights". While these types of remote lighting systems provide advantages over non-remote type systems (e.g., they require less power consumption, provide greater light intensity, and are less susceptible to damage), they suffer from some drawbacks.
Particularly, these types of remote vehicular lighting systems generally require separate light generating sources to respectively produce a "low beam" and "high beam" headlamp function, intensity, and/or pattern. For example and without limitation, many of these vehicular lighting systems use separate or "stand-alone" lamps having conventional incandescent bulbs, to generate and/or provide a "high beam" type of light having a relatively high intensity and a distinct pattern. These separate lamps draw a relatively high amount of power which undesirably discharges and/or "drains" a significant amount of power or charge from the vehicle's battery. Other prior vehicular lighting systems use a single light emitting/generating source and separate guides or cables which cooperatively and selectively produce both high beam and low beam types of light or functions. The use of these separate and/or additional optical guides or cables undesirably increases overall system cost and increases the complexity and the likelihood of component failure in these systems.
There is therefore a need for a method and an apparatus for remote lighting which overcomes at least some of the various previously delineated drawbacks of these prior remote lighting systems; which employs a single source to provide multiple types of lighting functions and/or lighting patterns; which obviates the need for multiple fiber optic cables or guides; which performs different or multiple lighting functions; and which substantially minimizes the amount of power required to perform these multiple lighting functions and/or to selectively provide these multiple types of light.